Moss did reduce Kenseth’s probation from six months to the final three weeks of this season.
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FORT WORTH – Chris Buescher grew up winning legends vehicle races at Texas Motor Speedway, on the fifth-mile track outside and sometimes on the quarter-mile layout that incorporates the main track’s frontstretch. Kenseth will make a final appeal at 1 p.m. ET. “I can’t speak for Matt – what happened has happened. It’s in the rearview at this point”. NASCAR looked at it the way they needed to and made a decision they felt was right. “It doesn’t affect me”. “I don’t have a horse in that race”.
In choosing to suspend Matt Kenseth for the next two events, NASCAR has sent out a message to the rest of the Sprint Cup Series garage that retaliation using race cars would not be tolerated moving forward.
“Based upon our extensive review, we have concluded that the No. 20 vehicle driver [Matt Kenseth], who is no longer in the Chase, intentionally wrecked the No. 22 auto driver [Joey Logano], a Chase-eligible competitor who was leading the race at the time”. But these two cars (Kenseth and Logano) were not racing each other for position. Rather, the argument turned on whether Logano intentionally hit Kenseth and if so what warrants a driver ramming the rear bumper of the leader? Kenseth, involved in an earlier wreck, was nine laps down at the time of the crash. The panel then affirmed and upheld the original Penalty levied by NASCAR.
“I know there’s a lot of discussion about consistency in our penalties and there should be and that’s part of the equation”, France said. When Kenseth returns for the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Logano will not be thinking of revenge. Logano went as far as saying that it might be a good thing he finished 37th in a race he had led 207 laps before a 10-laps-down Kenseth wrecked him and put him in a huge hole to advance to the final round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. If his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy is up to the task, one wonders what it would be like to see the closing laps come down to a duel between Gordon, Harvick and, say, Logano. Kenseth has been fuming ever since, and most everyone expected a few form of retribution. I’m pretty pumped up about being here at the racetrack today…. No. Of course not.
After making his truck debut with Shigeaki Hattori at Martinsville Speedway last weekend and finishing 17th, the 22-year-old racer will reprise his role in the team’s No. 80 Camry at the one-mile track.
“Was I surprised to see the fans’ reactions after something like that happened last week?”
“That’s what I had coming to me”, said Logano. Appearing to be on the way to his fourth consecutive victory, Logano would end up 37, putting him in the eighth and final spot in the playoffs. “We’ll go into the truck race here first this weekend and try to fire-off and get ourselves back to where we need to be in that series”.
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“It’s a no-holds-barred wild, wild West. Sure, when people crown the statement that a driver’s doing what he’s got to do and they became OK with that statement, you’re just opening up Pandora’s box”.
